Benchmark equity indices recovered most of their intraday losses and ended on a flat note on Friday amid buying in index heavyweights such as SBI, ITC, ICICI Bank. The BSE Sensex and the Nifty opened lower and traded most of the day in the negative zone tracking global indices, which were mostly lower. However, last hour buying helped indices recover most of their losses and close slightly lower. The BSE Sensex finally settled 20.46 points or 0.03% lower at 58,786.67 and the NSE benchmark Nifty50 index closed 5.55 points or 0.03% lower at 17,511.30. Among sectors, PSU banks, metals, realty stocks outperformed other sectors and benchmark indices. 

Ricky Kirpalani, Lead Sponsor, First Water Capital Fund (AIF) says, markets are likely to remain lackluster running into the holiday season, Xmas and New Year. “We would not be likely to rush in at this juncture but poised to increase deployment if a liquidity-driven correction comes our way,” he added.

Rakesh Jhunjhunwala-backed Star Health and Allied Insurance Company, which debuted on stock exchanges today at 6% to its issue price of Rs 900, managed to close the day in the green at Rs 900.10.

Among Nifty stocks, Asian Paints was the top gainer, up 3.29% followed by SBI and SBI Life Insurance, which gained `1.40% and 1.24% respectively. M&M, Bajaj Finserv, BPCL, ICICI Bank, ITC, IOC, Tata Steel, ONGC, Bajaj Finance, Reliance Industries were the other gainers in the 50-share index.

Divis Labs was the top loser in the Nifty, down 1.57% followed by Titan Company and HDFC, which fell 1.39% and 1.18% respectively. Kotak Mahindra Bank, Tata Consumer Products, Coal India, Axis Bank, Wipro, UPL, Eicher Motors, HCL Tech, Tech Mahindra, Bharti Airtel were the other prominent losers in the Nifty.

Market breadth was positive today; out of the 3,393 stocks traded on the BSE, 2,099 stocks advanced while 1,170 stocks declined and 124 stocks ended unchanged.